Midlands mayor who received $15K for serving on board ruled to have violated SC Ethics Act
A mayor in the Midlands was found guilty of violating the state Ethics Act after failing to recuse himself from a commission that decided where the town would receive its water.
In a March 7 decision, a panel of the State Ethics Commission found that Batesburg-Leesville Mayor Lancer Shull committed six ethical violations, including three counts of attempting to influence a governmental decision in which he had an economic interest and three counts of failure to recuse himself in which he had an economic interest.
Shull was issued a public reprimand and ordered to pay a “reduced civil penalty” of $1,300, which includes $50 for each count and a $1,000 administrative fee.
If Shull fails to pay the fine within 60 days of receiving the panel’s order, the penalty will increase to $2,000 for each count ⏤ the statutory maximum ⏤ totaling $13,000, including the administrative fee.
The panel’s decision stems from an ethics compliant filed by Batesburg-Leesville Town Council Members Steve Cain and Shirley Mitchell, who alleged that Shull voted on proposals related to Lexington County’s Joint Water and Sewer Commission, which provides water services in the county and on which Shull serves.
The council voted to remove Shull from the commission in a 5-4 vote on Jan. 13, 2020, in which Shull voted against his own removal, according to Cain and Mitchell.
Following that vote, Shull pushed to get back onto the water commission by urging two council members to reverse their vote, Cain and Mitchell said in a complaint.
“After the vote, [Shull] was so angry and distraught that he pressured council members Cynthia Etheredge and Bob Hall, [who were new to council at the time] to reverse their vote in a hastily scheduled special council meeting 8 days later,” reversing the previous vote, Mitchell wrote in her complaint.
Shull was reappointed at the commission by a 7-2 vote at a Jan. 21, 2020 meeting.
Last month, Shull told The State he expected to be cleared of any wrong-doing, saying a similar complaint had previously been sent to the state Law Enforcement Division and no action was ever taken.
“It’s just a political hit job,” Shull said in February.
Shull did not respond to a request for comment on the commission’s decision prior to this story’s publication.
The panel found that Shull was prohibited from voting on his recusal because of his membership on the Joint Water and Sewer Commission, which pays members a $250 per diem for any expenses they incur from their commission. That constitutes an economic inducement Shull voted to give himself, State Ethics Commission general counsel Courtney Laster argued before the panel at a hearing in February.
Shull’s attorney, James Randall Davis, argued the money is an “incidental” benefit meant to compensate commissioners for any costs incurred during their work on the commission, such as food, travel or lodging. Such payments are allowable under the statute creating the joint water commission, which otherwise prohibits its members from receiving any compensation for their service.
The panel disagreed.
“From 2018 to 2023, [Shull] received $250 each month from the JMWSC,” the decision read. “These payments were made without regard to the JMWSC convening a monthly meeting or [Shull’s] attendance.”
In all, Shull received $15,000 ⏤ $3,000 a year ⏤ while serving on the water commission. Shull has represented Batesburg-Leesville on the commission since 2018.
“The JMWSC did not maintain records related to [Shull’s] mileage or actual expenses,” the panel said.
“If there’s no accountability for how or where it’s spent, that doesn’t sound to me like a per diem,” State Ethics Commissioner Brandolyn Thomas Pinkston said at the hearing in February.
Shull testified that his only interest in serving on the water commission was in finding alternate water sources for the town, whether that meant contracting with Joint Municipal Water or not. He said when he was elected mayor in 2017, Batesburg-Leesville was under a state Department of Health and Environmental Control order to update its water system, which had overstretched the town’s 80-year-old reservoir that Shull described as looking like “a 1941 submarine movie.” He also told the commission he no longer takes the per diem.
“I would do this for free,” he said.
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